Collapsible pouches are typically used for packaging a wide variety of products involving food, beverages, personal care products, household care products, or other similar or dissimilar products which may be in the form of a liquid, lotion, gel, paste, or the like. Such a pouch is typically made from a flexible, heat-sealable, polymeric sheet or from a flexible, paperboard or metal foil sheet having a heat-sealable, polymeric lining. The pouch typically has two, opposed, flexible web portions peripherally sealed or joined to one another so as to define an interior region, which is adapted to contain the fluent product, and also to define an opening for establishing communication between the pouch interior region and the exterior of the pouch. The pouch may include a lower gusset which joins the two, opposed flexible webs, to increase pouch volume. The opening in the pouch is adapted to receive a dispensing fitment assembly, which may incorporate a dispensing valve, and a removable cover, dispensing actuator or other similar or dissimilar features, and which typically further includes a fitment body molded from a polymeric material that can be heat-sealed to the web portions of the collapsible pouch. Such constructions are commonly referred to as Bag-On-Valve (“BOV”) packages. Some examples of BOV packages can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. RE 39,520 E, issued Mar. 20, 2007; U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,429, issued Aug. 27, 2002; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,272,307, issued Aug. 14, 2001, all hereby incorporated by reference.
It is known to utilize such BOV packages in dispensing systems that utilize a container that is pressurized with a propellant or compressed gas. In such pressurized systems, the pouch of the BOV package is inserted into a pressure capable container with a portion of the fitment assembly engaging an insertion opening of the container to close the container with the pouch hanging from the fitment assembly inside the container. Examples of such dispensing systems can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 35,540, issued Jun. 24, 1997 and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,037, issued Dec. 8, 1992, all hereby incorporated by reference. The weight of the fluent product contained in the collapsible pouch is known to cause stresses in the web portions of the pouch at the lower gusset thereof, particularly at the so-called triple point gusset weld, that is, those points of the pouch at which the lower gusset is joined to the two opposed flexible webs. Such stresses can occur particularly when the pressurized dispensing system is subjected to impact loads such as when being dropped from a height onto a hard surface. These stresses have been known to cause failures in BOV packages and there is a continuing need to make such constructions more robust in order to reduce such failures.